Encouraging words

STOCKTON - With absolutely no apologies to will.i.am and The Black Eyed Peas, students at Dolores Huerta Elementary School broke out Thursday afternoon in a hip-hop ode to literacy.

Roger Phillips

STOCKTON - With absolutely no apologies to will.i.am and The Black Eyed Peas, students at Dolores Huerta Elementary School broke out Thursday afternoon in a hip-hop ode to literacy.

"This book's gonna be a good book," they sang. "This book's gonna be a good, good book. Pick up the book, and turn the page, you never know just what you'll find."

The performance capped a brief assembly during which representatives of Comcast presented each of Huerta's 500-plus K-8 students with an age-appropriate Spanish-language book.

"Read to each other," InÚs Ruiz-Huston, University of the Pacific's Latino community outreach coordinator, urged the audience as she spoke in the cafeteria of the south Stockton school. "You'll not only be helping yourself, you'll be helping your mother, father, sister, brother. You're helping each other. It's so important to do that."

In addition to giving away books such as "Donde Viven Los Monstruos" ("Where the Wild Things Are") and "El Superzorro" (you can figure this one out by yourself), Comcast officials were on hand to spread the word about the company's efforts to shrink the chasm between computer and Internet haves and have-nots.

The company offers $9.95-a-month high-speed access to families whose public- or private-school children qualify for free or reduced-price meals. The company offers the same families the opportunity to purchase a computer for $150.

Fittingly, it was through an Internet search that Huerta Principal Valerie Standridge found the adaptation of The Black Eyed Peas' "I Gotta Feeling" that her students performed Wednesday.

Speaking after the assembly, Standridge estimated that only about half of her school's students have computers at home, and that many of those who do have Internet access have it only via smartphones. This digital divide denies many students the opportunity to do schoolwork online at home.

The vast majority of Huerta's students are Latino. According to a 2009 study by the Public Policy Institute of California, Latinos badly trail other demographic groups in terms of access to home computers and home broadband connections.

Comcast officials say 2.6 million United States households are eligible for the company's low-income Internet and computer programs. So far, 150,000 households have taken advantage.

"If you don't read, you're going to go down the wrong track, the wrong way," Ruiz-Huston said. "Just like you have to take time to watch a novella, you have to take time to read. ... It's so important to read every day."